Brussels/Berlin - The European Commission is to take Germany to court over its failure to modify the so-called "Volkswagen Law," which has been found to break the European Union's competition rules, officials in Brussels said Tuesday. A spokesman for the EU's internal market and services commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, said the commissioner planned to make a proposal to this effect "as soon as possible."
The premier's office in the state of Lower Saxony, which holds 20.1 per cent of the voting rights and is at the centre of the dispute, said the commission's objections were well known.
"The position of Commissioner McCreevy has long been known," a spokesman said in the state capital of Hanover.
The spokesman said the points made by the European Court of Justice in its October ruling had been inserted in the a new VW law currently being processed "on a one-to-one basis."
The EU executive had previously asked Germany to amend the law in the light of the October ruling which found that the 48-year-old legislation broke EU rules.
A German government response, delivered to Brussels in August, had failed to address the EU's concerns, the commission found.
"The facts are clear: they are not changing their positions," McCreevy's spokesman, Oliver Drewes, told reporters in Brussels.
VW declined to respond. "We will not say anything on this," A spokesman said in Reykjavik at the presentation their of the new VW Golf.
VW has consistently declined to comment on the long-running conflict, seeing itself as the subject of the case and not as a legal party.
But Porsche, which holds 30.6 per cent of the voting rights and a 22.5-per-cent stake in Europe's largest carmaker, welcomed the commission's decision.
"This is completely in line with our thinking," a Porsche spokesman said in Stuttgart. "We are firmly convinced that there is no need for a VW law."
Although much smaller than VW, highly profitable Porsche, which is renowned for its upmarket sports cars and sports utility vehicles, has stated its intention of seizing control of the mass carmaker.
German Economics Minister Michael Glos also believes the VW law to be superfluous, and his ministry said Tuesday there was provision in the new law to cut out the blocking minority clause favouring the state of Lower Saxony.
The so-called "VW law" allows the state of Lower Saxony to hold veto powers in Volkswagen's board despite holding less than the normal required legal minimum of 25 per cent of shares in the company.
